Images from a recent visit to Cambodia revealing the colours and contrasts of a country in transition.
Since 2012, I’ve been doing documentary work in Woodlane Village – a squatter camp in Pretoria. The informal settlement is home to 3000 people living in 846 shacks. The camp is located in the wealthy suburb of Moreleta Park and is surrounded by mansions and shopping malls.
This project explores the complexities of social and economic inclusion in contemporary South Africa. Scenes of everyday life provide an intimate view of Woodlane Village: a place of promise and heartache; a place of perseverance and faith; a place where personal histories reveal complex social truths.
This work was recognised by the News Photographers Association of Canada in the 2017 National Pictures of the Year Awards Competition. The photos were also winners in the photojournalism category of the PDN Photo Annual 2018. HOMELANDS was also featured in Newsweek Japan.
Images and stories from this project were published in June 2019 by Daylight Books to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of South Africa’s first open election (See: the BOOK).
Port au Prince, Haiti and Vancouver, Canada
Documenting grassroots leadership and the community response to HIV/AIDS in one of the richest cities in the world and in one of the poorest.
The photo-based collaboration with Panos Caribbean and Panos Canada involved partnering with 24 NGOs in both locations and led to the creation of the Vancouver Initiative (2006-2010) — an effort to re-energize the community response to HIV/AIDS by harnessing visual, participatory, and narrative methods to build dynamic new links between Vancouver and other cities.
AIDS in Two Cities pioneered an innovative bifocal approach of: A) Using “cities” as the analytical lens for looking at programmatic and policy responses to HIV/AIDS; and B) Using a commonalities approach to challenge the paternalistic assumptions that have formed the basis for the north-south development model.
"Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."
— Nelson Mandela, 1994
As South Africa approaches the 25-year anniversary of the abolishment of apartheid, it is important to reflect on the country’s imperfect journey to democracy. For many, the dream of the “rainbow nation” remains elusive.
The series has been recognized by the State of the World Px3 Paris Photography Prize
An image from this series work also will be featured in the Portrait of Humanity book and touring exhibition organized by the British Journal of Photography and Magnum Photos. The photo was showcased in Zagreb (Croatia), Lagos (Nigeria), Victoria (Australia) and New Orleans (USA) in 2019.
Evidence of Habitation explores informal housing and homelessness in Edmonton, the provincial capital of Alberta, Canada. The project reveals the signs of individuals as they seek refuge in the interstitial spaces of the city. The photos document the physical and symbolic processes of place-making in wooded areas, ravines, alleyways, and under bridges across the four seasons.
By documenting the material conditions of temporary housing, the photos challenge the “otherness” that accompanies the discourse on homelessness—while also raising questions such as: What is a home? Who is a neighbour? Who has the rightful access to the resources and bounty of the City? What responsibilities do we have to our fellow citizens?
The work has been recognized by the News Photographers Association of Canada in the 2018 National Pictures of the Year Awards Competition. The series has also been recognized by the State of the World Px3 Paris Photography Prize.
On Tuesday, 12 January 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. The epicentre of the quake was approximately 25 km from Port-au-Prince.
With approximately 3 million people affected, the earthquake was the most catastrophic natural disaster ever experienced in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Roughly 250,000 lives were lost and 300,000 people were injured. About 1.5 million individuals were internally displaced and forced to live in makeshift camps.
In June 2010, I collaborated with Panos Caribbean to document the reconstruction efforts in Port-au-Prince. Six months after the quake, the capital city lay in a broken state with collapsed buildings and piles of rubble and twisted rebar. Much of the clean-up and rebuilding was being undertaken by hand with shovels, pickaxes, and sledgehammers. Yet in the midst of this devastation, a defiant spirit of life was evident on the streets and in the encampments.
Memories of the seven months I lived in Cadotte Lake in Northern Alberta. I am feeling nostalgic for this First Nations community and for this part of my life. This was when I first picked up a camera, shooting with slide film. There is something magical about Kodachrome 64 and Fuji Velvia.
In 1999, I ventured into Edmonton’s inner city. I was fresh out of university, confused and disillusioned. Everything was out of kilter. I knew I had to get off the beaten path to find my way. I decided to channel my feelings into a constructive outlet, namely a photographic documentary of the human face of poverty in my hometown.
What started as a visual examination of my messy backyard turned into a 20-year exploration of life at the margins. In the course of this journey, I witnessed first hand the structural inequalities present in Edmonton.
The inner city is a metaphor. It’s a city within a city, but it’s also part of our collective consciousness. For some, it represents a stern warning against sloth and other perceived failures of character; for others, it’s the ultimate expression of human avarice, with small subsets of society hoarding the majority of the resources.
These photos represent my coming of age. They are memory sketches of an earlier time: snapshots and flashbacks in film. They are also archival evidence of lives and places that have ceased to be. Many of the individuals depicted have died in the intervening years. And many of the locations where these photographs were taken have been demolished and redeveloped as part of the great cycle of destruction and renewal in the city.
Images from a recent visit to New York City. Part of a series of snapshots loosely exploring the colours of the American flag.
This series explores how patterns of sand can trace the history of a place. During my daily walks along a stretch of beach in Aposentillo, Nicaragua, I was struck by the unique images left behind by retreating waves. It occurred to me that the layers of light and dark volcanic particles convey deeper meanings. It is as if the land and the ocean are channelling the spirit of the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and his images of deep sea-swells and charcoal horizons.
There is a dialogue between the land and the ocean — a visual communication. In this case, the script reveals the origin of Nicaragua and its tumultuous past. The writing also foreshadows what might come as traditional ways of life are disrupted by the arrival of tourism and the increased foreign investment. Storm clouds are also present as the country experiences another phase of civil unrest and bloodshed.
The photos were recognized in PDN Photo Annual 2018 as well as by the 2018 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3).
